Comment by maccard
3 years ago
In my experience no amount of talking down will deescalate a difficult customer who escalates to the point of abuse or disrespect.
The only effective method for dealing with them (based on working in retail and PC repair for 5 years) is to gray rock them, be as unhelpful as possible and disengage the situation, and hope the next time you deal with them that they're more reasonable.
> gray rock
Which is - to my understanding of what it could mean - one the most disrespectful behaviours possible. And disrespect to that level could lead to violence, depending on the culture of the interlocutor. Even more than earlier, further recommendation to throw checks and good sense is suggested - cooling down the situation and remaining fixed in lucid reasoning (which includes, remaining respectful - which excludes, showing you are ignoring the interlocutor).
Edit: I will rephrase, for even more clarity: if somebody were irritated, and the listener started playing uninterested and distracted - well that amounts not to the "small terms" of just putting fuel to a fire, but carpeting napalm.